After waffles and many cups of coffee I sat down to look at my route choices coming up. The divide remains snowy and somewhere I’m not sure we belong at the moment. I think I will piece together some more roads, and then climb back up on the divide around Stoney Pass. There is a short cut called the Creede Cut Off that will whisk you up the trail quickly and avoid some snow, but then a huge section of trail gets cut out, the route bulges out to the west in a riot of mountains and ridges. I didnt want to miss this, so will walk roads below the higher mountains, and then meet up with the trail where I have walked before. When I hiked the Colorado Trail in 2007 i walked the trail north of Stoney Pass, and remember perfect terrain for my skis. I won’t miss the scenery, and I’ll get to spend some more time on the planks. I think its a grand plan, and the other 4 seem to be formulating their own strategies. I’ll most likely be alone again for this stretch, but I quite like the solitude, peppered with hiking with others. The best of both worlds!

AND if I time it just right I should be in Lake City with my old friend Lucky (PCT 2006) for my birthday next week! WOOT!

We had a birthday party for Whiptale, the ribs were DELICIOUS, and cake and lots of goodies to fill our bellies with.

Durango breweries are cheeky

Awesome people, good people, you can’t find better people.

The next day I caught up on the ‘ol blog and set out to take care of this cough (interestingly enough it is much better in town..maybe the elevation or cold was making it worse?) and the nurse determined it wasn’t an infection or anything, so I have an inhaler for the next section and some heavy-duty cough syrup. Hopefully that will help clear this thing up.

More errands took up the rest of the afternoon, and we got to relax in style tonight with a huge pasta dinner (and banana splits!) and movies (In the Heat of the Night & A River Runs Through It).

Trail (er road) tomorrow, it will be good to walk! All fattened up for another stretch.

Thanks Whiptale!!

Just some hikertrash hanging out in Durango